The faces of pediatric and maternal malnutrition in Guatemala

Two week old infant admitted for malnutrition. His mother has no breast milk

For the past few years, international news headlines have talked about the growing issue of pediatric malnutrition and growth stunting. It is not a new concern for COTA team members, but this particular year, it felt more personal. We held the babies admitted for critical malnutrition, but harder still was holding the mothers, and knowing we had little to offer them.
The mother in this photo is only 23 years old. This is her 7th baby. He cried most of the time he was on the pediatric ward while we were working there. Bonding with a baby you can't feed, and who won't stop crying, must be very difficult, and we saw his mother struggle with this.
We gave his mother our hand-made infant quilts, some baby clothes, and some maternal vitamins donated by our pharmacists. We fed her from our backpacks, and gave her Gatorade from our supplies. We taught her how she needed to nourish herself in order to make breast milk for her baby. Our nurses slipped her some money for food while she was there. She refused to use it for herself, and told us she would save it for her children.
But we couldn't give her what she needs most--an economically viable way to support her children. A job for her husband. Food for her table. Education for her children, which means purchasing school supplies she can't afford.
This family was discharged from the Guatemalan hospital last Wednesday. The hospital had no infant formula to give the mother. As you can see in the photo, the mother had no breast milk to feed her baby. He was vomiting when he left. All we can offer is our prayers, and our continued determination to travel to Guatemala annually to do what we can for those who need it the most.

Formula donations (powdered, with an expiration date beyond January of 2013) gratefully accepted.

This is Why COTA Brings Dentists on Our Teams

Five years ago, the COTA board made the decision to add a dental component to our annual teams. Our initial thought was that this would benefit our surgical cleft patients, who frequently have teeth growing in their palates. 
Dental care for the rural poor is scarce in Guatemala. As with most developing countries, foods high in sugar are less expensive than nutritious items, making conditions shown in this photo all too common.
We have been fortunate to be able to continue this service thanks to our volunteer dentists who take a week of unpaid vacation leave to travel with us.

Pre-Team Meet and Greet

Sandi Brangers and Henry Elam

Children of the Americas takes the largest medical/surgical/dental team currently going to Guatemala on an annual basis. With over 100 COTA volunteers every January, there are many  faces for new team members to learn.

Laurie and Mike Branstetter, Julie Fuchs, and Bobby Edwards (rear)

At our holiday gathering we share food, friendship and we disperse team t-shirts and badges. Hotel reservations are discussed, questions answered and a slide show gives the new team members a chance to see first-hand what we do during our team trips. 

The next time we see each other we will be in Guatemala.

Happy holidays to all of our wonderful volunteers!

Carlos, former COTA stateside patient, graduates in Guatemala

The following is a message from Sharon, Founder and director of Mayan Families in Panajachel, Guatemala.

Today Carlos is graduating from 6th grade! Many of you will have met Carlos if you have visited.
Carlos speaks fluent English. He was taken to the U.S. by our friends from  COTA, some of whom are members of this group.
He was electrocuted when he was 8yrs old and severely burned.   He spent long periods in the U.S. getting treatment for his injuries.  He is now 20yrs old and still suffers from results of these injuries. He lost half his foot. He has terrible ulcers on his leg which COTA team members treat him for when they come. ....and we also try to keep it under control with medical treatment here.

He is so excited to be graduating today.   Carlos works in our carpentry workshop and he is really doing a great job. Michael, our wonderful, long term volunteer who oversees the carpentry workshop has done a great job teaching Carlos how to be a professional. Michael was supposed to attend the ceremony today and be the one to present the diploma to Carlos..( Carlos has no family here) but unfortunately, Michael's 88 yr old mother had a heart attack and Michael went home to be with her for Thanksgiving.   So it is my honor to be able to go to the graduation ceremony and present the diploma to Carlos.
Sharon

Roger and Rosemary promoted Children of the Americas at First Presbyterian Church in Lexington on Sunday.
Networking our organization to the local community will enhance our ability to collaborate on supplies, and will increase our volunteer pool. Great job!

Created with Care for Children of the Americas

Hand quilted baby blankets and infant bibs are a work of art. Each blanket takes many hours of cutting, piece work and sewing. The bibs are a great gift to give out for our cleft babies we care for on our surgical teams.
Hand made blankets of this quality are often sold in gift shops across Kentucky. Fortunately for COTA, the Brookesville, Indiana sewing guild realized that they are priceless gifts to our Guatemalan patients, and they donated the products to us. The recent gift of over 100 blankets and 150 bibs have been shipped to Guatemala and are waiting to find their new owners when we disperse them on Team 2012. We are grateful to Marie Kerr in Mt. Carmel, Indiana for her many years and countless hours of sewing for our patients. Marie, who is in her late 70's, has a big heart, busy hands and talented friends.

Rigoberto needs a prosthetic leg

This is Rigoberto. He lives in a very inaccessible area of northern Guatemala, which makes obtaining a prosthetic leg almost impossible. As shown in this photo, Rigoberto makes his way up his mountain village pathway with a homemade crutch.
Children of the Americas will be in Guatemala in January, and we hope to be able to help this patient with his ambulatory needs. The average cost of a prosthetic leg in the United States is well over five thousand dollars. All of our prosthetic supplies are donated to our Guatemalan patients. Your donations help us do this much needed work.

Spreading the Word about COTA

Paul, Josh, Rosemary, Jody and Luis enjoyed speaking to a group of University of Kentucky medical, nursing and PA students recently in Lexington. Always happy to share the word about the great work being done within the Children of the Americas organization, these volunteers were equally inspired by the enthusiasm of the students they spoke to.

Who Knew?

It sounded like a long and tiring day, and it would have been without the great attitudes of these COTA volunteers. Everyone got up very early on a Saturday, drove 80 miles to northern Cincinnati, and (naively) thought they would be spending a few hours going through donated medical supplies from our generous donors, Matthew 25.
In reality, we spent more than a few hours; were faced with 7 shrink-wrapped 8 foot tall pallets of 40 boxes each and had to open each and every box to determine what supplies would best meet the needs of our upcoming COTA team. We finished the day by loading one pickup truck, a van and two cars with the boxes of surgical and medical supplies in this photo.
This picture was taken at the end of the day. Jennifer, Renee, Diana, Rosemary, Mary Ann and Jody know that hard work, when shared with compassionate hearts and good friends, can still leave you with enough energy for shopping!
Who knew.

Osvaldo Prepares to Return to Guatemala

Years of waiting are over for Osvaldo. Thanks to the skills of the surgeons in Richmond, Virginia who volunteer with The World Pediatric Project, Osvaldo's miracle surgical donation has happened. His six weeks of post-operative healing is over, and Osvaldo will be returning to his parents in Guatemala this week. COTA networks with volunteer American Airlines employees to escort our patients home, and The Miles for Kids program donated his airline ticket. Perhaps Osvaldo is smiling because he knows how fortunate he has been to have so many adults working on his behalf.

100 Hours of Volunteer Time for 1 Guatemalan little Boy

It has been estimated that each child COTA brings out of a developing country for donated surgery requires 80-100 hours of volunteer time. Other agencies that we network with confirm that they have found the same to be true. Osvaldo is the most recent beneficiary of some of those many hours. In his particular case, the hours of volunteer effort will be much higher than 100.
Children of the Americas discovered Osvaldo when the determined women in this photo
got together and decided that this little boy in remote Guatemala needed help. Osvaldo was born with a congenital anomaly of his mid-face. Surgical correction of this life threatening issue could only be accomplished with the finely tuned effort of three pediatric surgical specialists: plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons and ENT surgeons. Once The World Pediatric Project in Richmond, Virginia agreed to accept Osvaldo into their program for donated surgery, the network between COTA and TWPP came together for the benefit of one little boy with a big problem.
In upper right photo: (L-R) Rosemary Vance, Executive Director of COTA; Teresa Godsey, volunteer; Dr. Carol Cottrill, President; Tom Rolfes, volunteer; Bety Davidson, volunteer; Osvaldo, lucky little boy. Photo on upper left: Osvaldo with Jenna Garber, Program Assistant with World Pediatric Project in Richmond, VA. She took Osvaldo to visit the James River before his surgery.
In the five days since Osvaldo left Guatemala, he has flown on both a commercial (wonderful donation from American Airlines) and private (thank you Roger Teague!) plane for the first time. He had his first McDonald's french fries within hours of landing in the states, and like most children, he knew instinctively how to play on the playground. The photo (upper left) shows Osvaldo visiting the river in Virginia this past holiday weekend.
He is getting an MRI as this post is being written,and has a CAT scan scheduled for later today. Surgery is on Thursday. One hundred hours will turn into hundreds more before his health is restored, and all of the people in Osvaldo's circle of concern will consider it time well spent.

Pediatric Malnutrition Continues in Guatemala

http://www.economist.com/node/14313735

An interesting article posted this week.

Baby Brayan and His Circle of Concern

These health care professionals in Lexington, KY are some of the many people who have donated their time, skills, knowledge and love to our newest cleft patient from Guatemala.
Dr. Carol Cottrill (seated) arranged the donation of surgical care while she and her husband (Tom Rolfes in yellow jacket) donated the remainder of the medical care bills. Rosemary Vance, COTA Executive Director, worked out the details of Brayan's travel and visa. Dr. Henry Vasconez (holding Brayan) donated his surgical skills. As of two days ago, Brayan is home in Guatemala.

A Big Smile On A Little Baby

This little charmer is the newest stateside COTA patient.
Baby B was flown into Cincinnati last week thanks to the excellent and well-coordinated efforts of the American Ambassadors Escort Program.
While he awaits his donated surgery, Baby B keeps his caretakers happy just watching his smile.

The Image of Strength

There are few photos that capture the essence of a Guatemalan mother more than this image taken by a COTA team member.
Children of the Americas has provided hundreds of donated surgeries and thousands of clinical visits/pharmaceuticals to rural Guatemalan women since we first started bringing our annual teams to this Central American country. By supporting the health care needs of Guatemalan mothers, we are enabling them to better care for their children.
On average, a rural housewife in this part of the world spends 10-14 hours a day providing for the needs of her family. The following is an excerpt from the 2003 report issued by USAID:

While Guatemala is the most populous Central American country (11 million) and largest economy (2000 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $19 billion), its largely rural, Mayan population lives in extremely difficult conditions. Distribution of land, income and other wealth is highly skewed toward a small percentage of Guatemala's Spanish-speaking population. An estimated 57% of Guatemalans live in poverty, and the roughly five million Mayans are isolated socially, economically, and politically due to geographic and language barriers as well as the lack of educational and economic opportunities. Overall, adult literacy is estimated at 65%, but literacy among Mayan women is estimated as low as 30%. Fewer than half of rural Guatemalans have access to running water, electricity reaches only a quarter, and only 16% have access to modern sanitary facilities. Infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in Latin America, despite decreases in recent years. These indicators reflect the country's persistent under-investment in social services and basic rural infrastructure, as well as past practices of political and socioeconomic exclusion of the indigenous population.

COTA is making a difference in these statistics, one healthy mother at a time.

Our best-kept secret

Shhh...don't tell our secret.
For years, Children of the Americas volunteers have returned from our annual team trips looking weary after a long week of work in rural Guatemala, which gets us a lot of sympathy from our families for a few days after we arrive home.
Our volunteers typically see over 1,400 clinic patients, and do 80-120 surgeries in a week. Our dental team pulls countless teeth, our pharmacists dispense thousands of medications. Orthotics staff give out hundreds of crutches, special shoes, and several dozen wheelchairs. We should be tired!
Barb Buss, seen above this past January on our last COTA team, has divulged our secret. Her smile gives us away. We LOVE what we do. There is no more meaningful way to spend a week of volunteer time than to offer medical/surgical/dental/orthotics care to those in rural Guatemalan who have no ability to obtain this for themselves.
But please, don't tell our family members. They might stop pampering us when we get home!

Covering our Patients in Comfort

For the last five years, Children of the Americas surgical patients in Guatemala have been the beneficiaries of many hand-made quilts. Hundreds of quilts and infant bibs have been made by this group of dedicated volunteers in Mt. Carmel, Indiana. COTA staff has made a tradition of gifting one of these special donations to each surgery patient we help on our teams. A big thank you to the amazing residents of this tiny but compassionate town.

Message on Team 2011 from COTA Board Member

“I am always in awe that COTA can assemble a team of 120 professionals from around the country, have them "parachute" in to a remote location, work so well as a team under adverse conditions and produce so much work. Helping people is the most important part of what COTA does but metrics set benchmarks for the next trip.
Dick Schmitt
COTA Board Member

COTA Finishes Team 2011 in Salama, Guatemala

These are a few of the outstanding professional volunteers who helped Children of the Americas on our recent medical/surgical/dental team last week. Thanks to the dedication of over 100 volunteers, we were able to see 1,600 clinic patients, perform 83 surgeries, assist 120 dental patients and donate 4,200 prescriptions to the citizens of this northern city. Twenty prosthetics patients were fit for donated limbs and donated walkers and crutches were given out.
Great job COTA volunteers!

Baby Alex Two Years Ago in KY After Coming To KY For Donated Cleft Surgery, And Now as a 4 Yr Old.